The Net +
Web Business Architecture

Francis Vale

Want to know how to bring those legacy systems into the 21st
century?
Need an IT/IS Internet/Web business rationale for your organization?
Then read on (BTW, this was written in 1995).

Forget about merely doing business on the Internet. Rather, think about what
could happen if you actually made the Internet and World Wide Web (Net + Web)
part of your business. By fully incorporating the Net + Web as a key component
of your IT infrastructure, you provide the very means to develop efficient business
and customer-service procedures. And that promises to bring a net positive impact
on the bottom line.

How can this be so? Essentially, the Internet offers a fault-tolerant,
globe spanning mechanism, providing near real time multi-media connectivity,
depending on the amount of bandwidth available. These powerful features typically
come at a fixed, or at least relatively fixed, low price, with easily decipherable
use charges stated up front.

What the Web essentially offers is a unique Hypertext Transport Protocol
(HTTP) that provides a client/server environment as equally operating system
independent on the client side as on the server side. Taken all together, this
is an entirely new type of communications business model.

Moreover, an interesting corollary surrounds the Net's novel architecture:
The more the Net is deployed and used in daily organizational transactions,
the greater your cost savings. This is an unusual financial axiom, and a fundamental
reason for the Net's success.

In particular, the Net's accounting clarity deserves mention, in marked
contrast to the Byzantine billing of long distance carriers such as AT&T, MCI,
and Sprint, which often go to great lengths to hide the true tariff you pay
for their services. This alone is a strong business enticement for actively
seeking out as many ways as possible to play down relationships with long-distance
carriers and get onto the 'Net.

In addition, you have the opportunity for having free and unlimited
telephone conversations over the Net via Vocaltec's Net phone software; free
and unlimited interactive Net video desktop conferencing via Cornell University's
Cu-SeeMe software; and coming up is free and unlimited connectivity to things
like Net faxing and paging.

Nonetheless, from an IT standpoint, these cost-cutting advantages don't
even scratch the surface of the Net's true importance. In order to understand
the actual significance of the Net+Web construct, you must free yourself of
the mind-numbing fog that is generated by the media, consultant, and vendor
hype. Then forget about simply moving your business on to the Net, and instead
think about the consequences of adopting the Net+Web as your organization's
de facto distributed computing architecture.

Worldwide distributed computing

For long range IT planning, the 'Net + Web distributed computing
model provides a standardized client interface, a standardized set of protocols
for transmitting and receiving diverse data, including multimedia, as well as
a standardized way for creating network sessions between heterogeneous legacy
host systems. Now consider what might happen if your organization were to pursue
aggressively a migration to client/server computing via Web-based clients and
standardized Net protocols. And then consider what might happen if your organization's
changeover to this new form of client/server were to become a widespread computing
paradigm. In all likelihood, it would cause a seismic market shift. The first
casualty of such a Netquake would be vendor control over the desktop OS

If nothing else, the client/server paradigm was supposed to eliminate
IT dependence on single-source vendors. In an act of cyberspace organizational
empowerment, newly freed data was to be distributed via flexible, flattened
networks to manifold types of end user systems. But while client/server computing
broke the hierarchical control of monolithic datacenter computing vendors, it
solidified the stranglehold of MS Windows on the desktop.

Toppling OS dependence

With few exceptions, most popular client/server development packages
are one client type-to-many server types when it comes to their distributed
computing architecture. Taking advantage of Open Database Connectivity (ODBC),
they support numerous server systems, but, almost invariably, clients are monolithic
Windows PCs.

Have you ever tried to distribute client/server applications with PowerBuilder
to Mac users?

The widespread adoption of the architecturally independent Net+Web could
topple the final preserve of operating-system dependence in the client/server
paradigm; i.e., overthrow MS Windows. When viewed in this context, the highly
democratic Internet and platform-liberating Web are probably the logical conclusion
and natural heirs to client server development.

Still sound farfetched? Microsoft doesn't think so. The company has
already put up a defense line to repel this market threat. Windows95 the MS
Network, and MS Explorer, MSN's link to the Internet, are the first big moves
intended to entrench Microsoft's presence on the desktop, while building extensions
that reach out onto the Net. In the long run, even the nascent OpenDoc vs. Network
OLE war brewing between IBM and Microsoft has big implications for the Net and the
Web.

Working against the success of a desktop takeover by the Net is the
Web's obvious lack of interactive functionality when compared to an OS-based
client. Windows-specific client/server development tools have a rich pallet
of objects and methods from which to paint sophisticated interrupt-driven client
interfaces.

Web clients finally grow up (fat)

In stark contrast, Web user clients to date have been distinctly
passive. They merely present tagged data gathered from a remote server and display
it according to certain conventions. In a very real sense, the first generation
of Web browser clients turned smart PCs into lobotomized zombies that behaved
very much like dumb ASCII terminals.

Fortunately, Web clients are rapidly gaining new capabilities for highly
interactive, intelligent behavior. Developers will soon gain the ability to
build fully interactive, even woefully fat, Web clients, just as they have become
accustomed to doing when building OS-based clients.

On way to provide this functionality is via an applications programming
interface (API). Along this line, Netscape is giving other developers access
to its browser's API in order to integrate specialized applications or functions into the
browser client.
In this way, 3rd party developers can readily enhance the native capabilities of the Netscape
browser. These new browser features are then triggered when a tag or tag attribute
from a Web file calls for a particular service, if it is present. These additional Netscape features are referred to as 'plug-ins.'

Another, more generalized, approach to enhancing dumb Web clients is also
gaining momentum. It will allow non-programmers and programmers alike to enhance
the functionality of a browser. This alternative technique takes advantage of
well known and understood scripting systems, such as Perl, to add specialized
functionality to a Web browser.

Then there is Sun's new and much publicized Java language for the Web.
Java allows the creation of almost any type of server you can imagine, in almost
any format/language/protocol. Java has been licensed by most all of the major
computer players, including Microsoft.

When you access the server, the appropriate client reader protocol,
written in Java, comes down the pipe along with whatever you just accessed.
Thus, the server access protocols, just like browser application helpers, are
dynamically loaded into your client machine. Java allows modification of the
protocol itself, too. The result: almost unlimited flexibility in designing
new types of Web server applications, with no worries about client capabilities
on the receiving end.

Essentially, Java permits embedding almost unlimited types of client/server
interactivity in otherwise static Web pages, including multimedia. And it all
happens across the Net between heterogeneous client server machines.

Java is a stripped down, highly portable C++ like language, which can
also be viewed as a language for creating cross platform network agents. Running
under any modified browser, and being a general programming system, Java is
not limited to just Web-page use. Sun also offers its own Web browser, HotJava,
acting as a vehicle for executing Java 'applets'.

Java is meant only for 32 bit systems (reflecting its Sun Microsystems/Unix
origins), which means it will not run under Windows 3.x systems, or MS DOS.
For PCs, it requires either Windows95, or NT.

Java is an interpreted language, denuded by Sun of certain read, write,
and delete functions. Sun has also done other things to make Java security-conscious.
In turn, don't expect Java applets, accidentally or no, to muck up users' machines
when downloaded.

Due to the language's C++ origins, Java is complex, and has an associated
learning curve. The Sun developed technology is comprised of the Java Virtual
Machine which standardizes its cross platform operation; and a platform specific
bytecode interpreter that executes the Java applets. The end result of this
multi-layered approach is that Java code executes up to ten times slower than
regular C++.

Nonetheless, Java is quickly gaining mind share, as evidenced by Netscape's
recently announced browser support for the Sun system. This support comes in
the form of Netscape's JavaScript, a new user scripting system that attempts
to mask from
view the underlying C++ programming of Java. (In reality, JavaScript is mostly
a wrapper mechanism for inserting into HTML files small chunks of Java code.)
In addition, 28 other computer
vendors, from Microsoft to IBM, have just announced licensing deals with Sun
for Java.

Java is obviously being optimized for graphics-based Web applets. Sun,
Silicon Graphics, and Netscape have jointly agreed to implement a cross platform
Java API that will offer portable, interactive multimedia and 3D graphics over
the Web. This upcoming iteration of Java will support SGI's Virtual Reality
Modeling Language (VRML).

In the midst of this Java/Netscape feeding frenzy, Microsoft recently
announced that it will be embedding browser technology directly into Windows95.
Furthermore, the forthcoming MS Blackbird -- a Web authoring technology -- will
also be going cross platform. In addition, MS plans to add extensions to its
highly popular Visual Basic language to make it a Net scripting tool similar
to Java. MS also intends to make Excel, Word, and PowerPoint work over the Internet.
In other words, the Web client now becomes a full blown desktop application.
Finally, MS plans to integrate its Internet Information Server, code named Gibraltar,
into Windows NT.

It will be some time before these new MS Net/Web products reach the market.
However, Microsoft has a proven history of entering markets late, and then scooping
up all the marbles. But in the multiplatform world of the Net + Web, this may
not prove as easy as it was in the past.

Finally, there is VXM Technologies' newly announced VXM System product. The
VXM System
is derived from a unique software scripting technology called the VXM Network
Shell, which was first deployed on TCP/IP, Internet-attached systems in 1986
at Hanscom Air Force Base, MA (at Mitre Corp.'s Electronic Systems Division).
In 1987, the The VXM System system logically unified PCs, Sun UNIX workstations,
VAX VMS computers, and distributed databases in a TCP/IP telecommunications
test bed at GTE Laboratories. VXM The VXM System was the world's first production
system that provided intelligent Internet agents across heterogeneous systems.

As with Java, The VXM System applets work across multiple platforms via a
standardized
virtual machine. Although expressing many similarities on the surface, The
VXM System
is architecturally quite different from Java. One very distinct difference between
the two languages is that The VXM System will run not only under 32 bit systems
(which Java is limited to), but also on 8 bit embedded micros. The VXM System
thus includes a much broader range of systems under its Internet-integrating
umbrella, such as consumer appliances, office equipment, DAVIC-compliant TVs,
and Intercast TV/PCs. (VXM The VXM System applets can be easily downloaded
during the TV signal's vertical blanking interval.)

The underlying The VXM System
interpreter is very small (128KB), and the The VXM System language is optimized
for intelligent
symbolic processing, as in AI/Lisp systems. The VXM System applets can take
autonomous
action (i.e., act as agents), and can go one logical step further than Java:
The VXM System's string-oriented applets are optimized for converting commands,
data formats,
and communications protocols between different applications and systems, including
legacy codes. There is no need to rewrite anything.

VXM The VXM System therefore acts as a kind of flexible, intelligent, connective
tissue which logically integrates the whole of the Internet. Via The VXM System,
the Web
becomes a cooperative, virtual extended machine, possessing capabilities for
autonomous intelligence.

The machine independent The VXM System logic encompasses computers, consumer
electronics,
and wireless devices. As opposed to Java applets, The VXM System's are meant
to stay in
the background, out of user sight. So like JavaScript, The VXM System can be
integrated
with Java, yielding a new type of intelligent multimedia-enabled, Internet applet
system.

There are many other new and exciting things to come for Web clients.
Already, Web clients are capable of bringing video, audio, and 3D virtual reality
graphics to the desktop. As a result, content-rich data sources for Web browsers
are growing exponentially. But even more important is the fact that all of the
rapid expansion in Web client functionality is intended for cross platform use.
These new additions are not OS-specific.

By adopting the Net+Web construct, your organization has immediate and
consistent portability to any computing device that supports a Web browser.
No more platform cross-training. No more worrying about OS upgrades. No more
internal fights about being a mixed PC/Mac/UNIX shop. What's more, upgrades
to Web clients are easily and rapidly distributed across any heterogeneous corporate
network.

More importantly, the Net+Web paradigm lets you expose existing legacy
systems to customers with the supreme comfort of knowing that what you see on
your desktop client is exactly what your customers see on their PC, Mac, or
UNIX Web browsers. Furthermore, you don't have to worry about what new OS your
customers will be using tomorrow, thanks to the technology buffer that the Net+Web
provides.

In the next issue of 21st, we continue our examination
of the
'Net+Web business model, Net security, virtual money, and why Kevin Mitnik,
despite what the New York Times said, may not be the 'Net's prototypical bete
noire.